Tag: Sea

Victoria,BC

Place 70 – Day 35: Victoria, BC – Day Trip To Sidney

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up and slowly got ourselves ready. We didn’t sleep well at all last night, so it was a slow morning.

We had some breakfast after we showered and then we relaxed for the rest of the morning.

At 12:30, we left to drive up to Sidney. Linda wanted to go back there after not being there for a while, so we took her there for a wander.

We got a coffee and a treat from the bakery and enjoyed those before walking to the waterside and enjoying the weather and the sea.

We managed to see a beautiful seal, until someone scared it away!

We then sat for a couple of hours facing the water just enjoying the scenery and enjoying people watching. There were a lot of kids playing around us, so it was fun to watch them.

We eventually got hungry so we headed back to the car and got on our way to the place Linda had booked for dinner.

We had planned to meet Linda’s friends, Dee & Steve, there (we know they read the blog…Hello!) But they were unable to attend, so we just went with the three of us.

Kim got a chicken burger and Curtis got a burger and they were alright!

Kim had a chocolate brownie for dessert and then we drove back home.

Curtis was pretty tired as he didn’t sleep well at all last night, so he had a little lay down and Kim did a bit of research for some things.

We didn’t do too much for the rest of the evening, just relaxed and chatted, really!

Kim did go out and check out Ogden Point, which she likes to do when here.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Advertisement
Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 931: Vancouver, BC – Wreck Beach

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast & Wreck Beach

We had a good sleep and then woke up and had some breakfast. Kim went out to get croissants and we ate those and slowly got ourselves ready.

We went out to Wreck Beach, which is right by the university campus. This beach, it turns out, is actually clothing optional, though most people that go don’t go for that.

We drove out there and found ourselves some parking and then walked down the many steps through the trees to get to the beach.

The beach was nice and peaceful, with most people just lounging around. There are a lot of logs around, so we sat on one of those after having a walk around and just took in the air and the scenery. The weather wasn’t amazing, but not cold, so it gres to just sit and relax at the beach.

We walked a little more and then headed back up the many steps to get to the car. As we walked back to the car, another car drove very slowly beside us, trying to wait for us to leave our parking spot so they could take it. This was much to the dismay of other drivers who got very annoyed, so we intentionally just walked away and let the guy drive off so he didn’t hold up traffic.

A Surprise!

On the way home, Kim surprised Curtis by driving to the British shop, where we were able to buy a lot of British snacks, similar to what she did for his birthday!

We bought a lot of stuff there and then drove home.

Homemade Pizza

After relaxing at home a little, we went to the supermarket to buy everything we needed for a homemade pizza. We bought the dough this time, though, but it was fresh dough.

We made the pizza and it came out great, though quite soggy in the middle, so that’s something to work on, but it was very tasty!

After eating, we watched a film and had some of our snacks. After that, we watched some more TV but Kim also ordered herself a blanket she wanted to get.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 43: Vancouver, BC – Kitsilano

Kim & Curtis Hale

Walk To Kits

We woke up and had a pains au chocolat each and some strawberries.

We ate this and then spoke with Kim’s family briefly as they were at Kim’s uncle’s wedding.

We then sat down to speak with Curtis’ family, but missed them so instead we left the house and walked to Kitsilano!

Kitsilano is a very trendy, hippie and beautiful neighbourhood in Vancouver. It took us roughly 45 minutes to walk from our home across to ‘Kits’.

The weather was beautiful, with the sun beating down on us.

The majority of the walk was along the seawall, so we got to see a lot of boats and we even walked through Granville island.

Coffee In Kits

We wanted to grab a coffee so we found a coffee shop called Bean Around The World. We believe this is a chain but it smelled delicious when we walked in and it was pretty well priced as well.

Curtis got a cappucino and Kim got a caramel macchiato. Both of our drinks were delicious!

Bean Around The World | Vancouver,BC

Rating:- 9/10

Looking For Food

We thought we would look around for something to eat, so we went to the main area in Kitsilano to get some lunch.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything, so we settled for a wrap and KitKat from Whole Foods instead!

Kitsilano Beach

We walked to the beach which has mountain views and lots of volleyball courts! We sat and ate our lunch and then began the walk home by the side of the beach.

We walked all the way home from there which took about another 45 minutes and we were exhausted!

Shopping

We got back home and relaxed for a bit as our feet hurt.

We then went out to do our shop for the week and didn’t really spend that much!

We came back and Kim made a really good dinner which was marinated pork with noodles and vegetables.

We finished up with dinner and watched the first episode of the new season of Black Mirror, followed by some Lucifer, as well as some ice cream and then whiskey!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Orlando,FL

Place 81 – Day 2: Orlando,FL – Florida Beach

Kim & Curtis Hale

Pancakes

Tom made pancakes this morning, as well as bacon, sausages & eggs.

We ate up and lazed about before we got ready.

Florida Beach

When in Florida, you have to go to a beach.

We went down the road and just found a beach somewhere, which was perfect as it wasn’t rammed.

We chilled at the beach for a few hours Kim and Abbie went in the sea and everyone got sufficiently brown.

We got a coffee whilst we were down there and Kim and Abbie looked in some shops.

We left all feeling very tired and headed back home.

Evening

We had a spinach, feta & beetroot salad for dinner and then Curtis watched the Leafs game.

We all slept at a decent time as we were tired and the both of us have colds, too.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 8: Vancouver,BC – A Relaxed Wander

Kim & Curtis Hale

Late, Relaxed, Awakening

Our friend Brody, who went with us to the leafs game yesterday, stayed over at the apartment we ate staying at.

We all woke up around 10:30 and we were all incredibly tired and a little dehydrated, mostly due to all the shouting at the hockey game!

We knocked back a few glasses of water and chatted and before we knew it, it was 12:00 and Brody had to leave to visit some family elsewhere in Vancouver.

Breakfast

When Brody left, we had the remainder of our cereal and watched some YouTube videos.

We eventually got ready and went for a bit of a walk.

‘Beach’Walk

It was meant to be cold today, but we felt our was actually quite warm.

We walked down to a ‘beach’ (they call it a beach, but it isn’t really one) and walked for a while, just chatting and watching people. The view was pretty stunning!

We walked back towards the apartment and remembered we still haven’t tried a certain coffee shop, so we had to go and try the cappuccino there!

Waves Coffee

We were welcomed into Waves coffee and it was a great environment. We each got a cappuccino and sat down, people watching.

The coffee was great! Perfectly strong and nice, fluffy milk. The staff were very nice, too.

Waves Coffee | Vancouver, BC

Rating:- 8.7/10

Spaghetti Alfredo

We went to the shop and got a few things, but mainly some chicken and sauce for dinner.

We got back and Kim made spaghetti alfredo with chicken and it was delicious! There was a lot of food there but we were both hungry so we polished that off.

Evening

We spent the evening watching YouTube videos and TV shows.

We leave Vancouver tomorrow and we are on a bus for a few hours, so we need to get some sleep, though our bus isn’t until 13:30.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Victoria,BC

Place 70 – Day 7: Victoria,BC – Ogden Point

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up and ready this morning, with a plan and everything!

We walked out to Ogden Point, which is a breakwater for the city and port.

We walked down beside it on the way down, as it was less windy and warm from the sun, plus it is walking over concrete blocks which is a bit more fun!

We came to the end where there is a lighthouse, which we got a photo of. We had to time it right as there was a woman running around it. She’s on the other side of the lighthouse in this photo!

We walked back to land along the top of the breakwater, but that was a lot more windy and much colder!

We got back to dry land and walked down the road a bit more and into a off-road coastal walk which was really nice.

We also met a baby golden retriever poodle!

We headed back via the supermakret to pick up some mac and cheese to go with our leftover chicken for a quick and easy meal.

Once we got back, we did some research and actually booked up a few places, which was successful!

We ate our dinner and Curtis watched 2 periods of the Leafs game before we went down to the rink for tonight’s royals game.

It was another terrific game with the royals winning, a player getting a hattrick, a lot of rough stuff and even a really good (but bloody) fight.

We left the rink and stopped at Tim Hortons for a doughnut each to keep us going.

We aren’t sure what the plan for tomorrow is just yet, so we shall see!

This time last year!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Bland Bay

Place 62 – Day 4: Bland Bay – Filleting A Fish 🐟

Kim & Curtis Hale

After waking about 09:30, we sat and Curtis had coffee and then we spent the majority of the day just chilling in the sun.

We had some pizza for lunch and Josh got back from fishing and then fell asleep.

Once Josh woke back up, he went to fillet some fish.

Kim wanted to see how to do it, so she was shown by Josh and then she had a go!

After filleting the fish, we turned on the BBQ and had some more meat for dinner!

We then ate, drank a bit and then played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity.

We are up around 08:00 tomorrow to head back to Auckland.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 3: Kaitaia – Te Paki Sand Dunes, The Top of NZ & Spirits Bay

Kim & Curtis Hale

Post breakfast, we were in the car and driving further up north! By 09:00, we were on our way and it was already getting warm!

We drove 1.5 hours up north to get to Te Paki stream. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there are giant sand dunes! Kim had read online that you can rent a ‘sandboard’ and go sandboarding on the dunes.

Once we arrived, we got ourselves a couple of sandboards and headed up the dunes. We were advised to go right to the highest dune to get a great view and then slide back down, which is what we did. What we didn’t realise was how incredible steep all of the dunes are and the effort it takes to get to the top, including getting sand blown in your face all the time!

Kim struggling with the dune!

We did get some amazing views at the top of the highest dune, which we soaked in whilst we relaxed after the tiresome climb!

The first sandboard down looked very high but wasn’t very fast at all.

We then went down the next hill, which was smaller but had way more speed and was great fun!

Luckily, as we were leaving, the sun got much warmer, so it was the perfect timing!

We had a drink and then drove from here to Cape Reinga, which is the top most point of New Zealand. Once we got here, we parked and walked down to the lighthouse, seeing the amazing views on the way. Apparently, two different oceans combine at this point also, which is what we assume the waves in the middle of the sea are!

We walked back to the car after seeing the lighthouse and drove to a beach over a gravel road, which took a while! The beach was called spirits bay and it was beautiful! We sat and ate our homemade ham, beef, cheese & salad sandwiches and then got back to the car to drive back to the apartment.

We chilled out for a while whilst we recovered from our tiredness and then we got back in the car and drove to the town to find food. We got a kebab each, which was an odd thing to choose but was delicious!

We watched a cabin restoration TV show and some other TV and then got packed up to leave tomorrow morning.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 1: Kaitaia – An Octopus, Crabs & Clever Seagulls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We said goodbye to our HelpX hosts in the morning when they went off to work and then we had breakfast, got ourselves ready and tidied the room.

We left the house after packing the car and drove up to Kaitaia.

Kaitaia is our base town for a couple of things we want to do as it is in the perfect location.

We got to our accomodation, a nice B&B with a lovely pool and it also backs onto a river! The owner was nice enough to let us check in early and gave us some hints. It’s actually a really nice room! A little small, but really nice.

We got unpacked here and went to find some lunch.

We drove down to the town, parked up and walked around. There wasn’t much there, so we got a subway amd drove back to the room to eat it.

After lunch, we went out for a bit of the evening. We are near the 90 mile beach, which extends over a lot of Northland.

We got to a point called Shipwreck Bay, which we thought had a shipwreck there, but we didn’t see anything and we also had to either pay to park there or drive onto the beach, which we didn’t really want to do.

We drove back up the road and found the perfect parking spot (for free) and wandered onto the beach. There were a lot of rocks but we wanted to walk on them, so that is what we did! We walked towards shipwreck bay until we couldn’t go any further! Along the way, we saw fish & a lot of crabs in between the rocks.

As we were about to head back, Kim saw a crab sitting next to the water and took a bit of a closer look, whilst filming, and to both of our surprise, there was an octopus which decided it wanted the crab!

We stuck around this area for a while, watching the octopus move around and hoping it did something else. Low and behold, it did! It wanted to eat a fish, so it grabbed it.

We moved on from the octopus and then saw a seagull swoop down and grab a crab. It flew away with it and then drop it. It then picked it back up again, flew higher and dropped it again. We thought this was accidental but it turns out it was deliberate to try and crack it open, which it did!

We left the beach after walking back and stopped at the supermarket to get some drinks for the next few weeks.

We got back and watched some videos until we got hungry and then we went to one of the few places for dinner. Curtis got a steak with peppercorn sauce and Kim got a fancy chicken burger. Our food was alright but the service was awful so all in all we gave it a 5/10.

When we were back home, we watched some renovation TV shows on the TV we have in the room.

Tomorrow we have a cooked breakfast here at 08:30 so we’ll be up for that!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Christchurch

Place 54 – Day 12: Christchurch – Banks Peninsula, Akaroa & Christchurch Centre

Kim & Curtis Hale

We only left the apartment around 12:00 as we caught up on sleep from being awake late last night.

By the time we left, the weather had improved and we got into the car with some scorching sun!

We drove to Banks Peninsula which is around 1.5 hours away from Christchurch, up in the mountains. Google Maps took us to the top of a mountain, but we got exquisite views from there!

We drove from here down to Akaroa. Akaroa is a small french inspired town due to its 10th century French colonisation. Most of the shops and roads have French names and it felt just like being in France!

We needed some food, so found a cafe and got a coffee and cake. The coffee was pretty disappointing, but it was what we needed.

We left here and went to a shop where we got some ham and cheese and then went to a French bakery and got a baguette.

We sat on a park bench overlooking the harbour eating baguette with ham and cheese.

We walked around for a brief moment and then strolled back to the car.

We drove all the way back to Christchurch and got back to the apartment, briefly, and then got back outside and walked the 20 minutes to the city centre.

In the centre, we walked down a nice street which had a few shops on it, called New Regent Street.

We had the tram go past us, also. It was a nice old style tram!

Walking on from here, we went to the Botanic Gardens and saw a lot of big and unique trees.

We left the botanic garden and on the way back home, we came to one of the most affected areas from the 2011 earthquake.

There are few buildings here now, but there still stands the Christ Church Cathedral, which is one of New Zealand’s top historic buildings. Unfortunely, the earthquake tore large holes into this cathedral and so it is cordened off, though it is part of a restoration project, which is estimated to take 7-10 years.

We got back home via the supermarket and fish and chips shop (to get more chips) and we had some leftover chinese for dinner.

We sat and watched some TV before hitting the hay, with a long drive planned for tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale